sex appeal
Americannoun
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sex appeals
plural
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the ability to excite people sexually.
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immediate appeal or obvious potential to interest or excite others, as by appearance, style, or charm.
a house with no sex appeal.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sex appeal
First recorded in 1920–25
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Oscar-winning actress - and now novelist - says that's why she wanted her new thriller to centre on a woman who has a unique skill, rather than being about her sex appeal.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2025
Friedman says that Spears’s dancing was about her artistry, not manufactured sex appeal.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
Diminutive and wiry, with mournful, beetle-browed eyes and a raspy tenor voice, Mr. Aznavour lacked the rakish sex appeal and ebullience of chanteurs such as Maurice Chevalier and Yves Montand.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 1, 2018
“Her publicity is focused more on her own derring-doishness and accomplishments than her sex appeal, much like a modern day Nancy Drew,” Kitty Curran tells TIME.
From Time ● Jun. 23, 2016
But neither of you need expect anything,' she says, 'for the wrongs of my sisters have armoured me against the grossness of mere sex appeal.'
From Somewhere in Red Gap by Harry Leon Wilson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
